Railroad wheel marking apparatus



March 24, 1970 B. F. BIAGGINI RAILROAD WHEEL MARKING APPARATUS Filed April 24, 1968 FlG 2 FIG 1 INVENTOR. BENJAMIN F BIAGGINI BY 6 m r ATTORNEYS United States Patent US. Cl. 335-284 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for marking a railroad wheel as it rolls along a rail of a track, the device including an electromagnet held by a magnetically permeable support fixed to the rail, the electromagnet, support and rail defining a magnetic circuit. A portion of the wheel enters into the mag netic circuit as it rolls past the electromagnet, a pole face of the electromagnet being positioned to have a face' of the wheel pass in close proximity thereto, whereby a portion of the wheel becomes magnetized. The pole face is positioned above the rail so that a sweeping effect of the pole face over the wheel face takes place, such sweep overlapping itself to an extent as that portion of the wheel is magnetized.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus for marking railroad wheels, and more particularly to a device wherein such marking is achieved by impressing magnetism into the wheels.

As railroad operations become more and more automated, new and more eflicient means for identifying locomotives, cars, and the like, have become necessary. Obviously, a number of characteristics are desirable in any such marking devices. Firstly, the mark should be one which is not affected by weathering, yet one which is easily erasable. Secondly, the device, while being capable of effective marking, meanwhile should be as compact, simple, and weatherproof as can be achieved.

It is the object of this invention to provide a device which, while being compact, simple, and not affected by weather, is capable of effectively marking railroad wheels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Broadly stated, the apparatus for marking a magnetically permeable railroad wheel rolling on a rail of a track comprises a magnetically permeable support member fixed to the rail of the track. An electromagnet is held by the support a distance above the rail anddefines with the rail and support a magnetic circuit, the pole face of the electromagnet being in close proximity to the face of the wheel as it rolls over the track, the pole face moving relatively toward and away from the center of the wheel as the wheel rolls therepast, whereby a portion of the wheel enters into the magnetic circuit as it rolls past the electromagnet and is rendered magnetized. The electromagnet is such distance above the rail, and the pole face is of such configuration that the portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face away from the center of the wheel continuously overlaps a portion of that portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face toward the center of the wheel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects of the invention will become apparent from a study of the following description and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the marking apparatus;

3,503,023 Patented Mar. 24, 1970 FIG. i2 is a plan view of the electromagnet of the device;

FIG. 3 is a view showing the path of the electromagnetic pole face relative to the wheel face as the wheel rolls past the pole face.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a magnetically permeable support 10 fixed to the web 12 of a rail 14. Rolling over the rail 14 is a wheel 16 of normal steel construction. Fixed to the support 10 is a mild steel core 18, having windings 20 therearound which are connected to a power source so that the core 18 and windings 20 form an electromagnet 22.

Extending from a slot in the core 18 inward toward the rail is a bar 24 of vanadium permendur, which is part of the electromagnet 22. The electromagnet 22, rail 14, and support 10 define a magnetic circuit when the windings 20 are connected to a power source, as mentioned above.

It will be noted that a face 25 of the bar 24 is positioned to be in close proximity to inner face 26 of wheel 16. As the wheel 16 rolls past the electromagnet 22, a relative movement between the bar face 25 and the inner face 26 of wheel 16 takes place. The bar face 25 moves relatively toward and away from the center of the wheel 16 as the wheel 16 rolls therepast. Thus, a portion of the wheel 16 enters into the magnetic circuit defined by the rail 14, support 10, and electromagnet 22, and is rendered magnetic.

The configuration and position of bar 24 are quite important in this application. Face 25 of bar 24 is substantially rectangular in configuration, the longer sides being of length C and the shorter sides being of length A, and is disposed so that the longer sides (C) of the rectangle are parallel to the rail 14. The face 25 is positioned a distance B above the rail. The dimensions A, B and C are such that the portion of the face 26 of the wheel 16 rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face 25 away from the center of the wheel 16 continuously overlaps a portion of that portion of the face 26 of the wheel 16 rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face 25 toward the center of the wheel 16. That is to say, the path of the face 25 relative to the inner face 26 of the wheel 16 overlaps itself as the wheel 16 rolls therepast. This is shown in FIG. 3. This overlapping is particularly advantageous in that, to a certain extent, a reinforcement of the magnetizing takes place.

It will be seen that an area of the wheel face 26 much greater than the area of the bar face 25 enters into the magnetic circuit and becomes magnetized. Due to this fact, and to the above-described overlap, an effective, large mark may be made from a relatively small bar face 25. Consequently, the power supplied to windings 20 need not be particularly high, since the area of the bar face 25 may be kept down, and a relatively large mark can be achieved.

In the preferred embodiment, it has been found particularly advantageous to place the bar face 25 a distance of about 1 inch above the rolling surface 30* of rail 14 (i.e., B=1 inch), and to configure the bar so that A=0.2O inch and C=0.80 inch. This has been found to result in a substantially square mark where dimensions D and E (FIG. 3) are approximately each 1 inch. Furthermore, with such dimensions, it has been found that the portion of the wheel 16 rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face away from the center of the wheel 16 overlaps more than one-half of that portion of'the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face toward the center of the wheel. Thus a relatively great reinforcingof' the mark is achieved.

By providing a number of such devices along the side of a rail 14, and by providing separate energizing means for each device, an effective coding system can be achieved by choosing which devices will be and will not be energized. Whether any given device is energized or not can be used as the basis of a simple binary code, so that an intelligible signal can be impressed on the wheel 16. i

It will be seen that herein is provided a most effective and efiicient means of marking railroad wheels. This is mainly so because of the positioning of applicants bar face 25 so that a relative sweep of the bar face relative to the wheel face takes place, as described above. Furthermore, the device disclosed is simple, compact and weatherproof. Obviously, the invention can be carried out in many different ways, of which the embodiment is merely illustrative. Therefore, I do not desire to be limited by the embodiment shown and described, but rather only by the scope of the following claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. Apparatus for marking a magnetically permeable railroad wheel rolling on a rail of a track comprising:

(a) a magnetically permeable support member fixed to the rail of the track; (b) an electromagnet held by the support a distance above the rail and defining with the rail and support a magnetic circuit, a pole face of the electromagnet being in close proximity to the face of the wheel as it rolls over the track, the pole face moving relatively toward and away from the center of the wheel as the wheel rolls therepast, whereby a portion of the wheel enters into the magnetic circuit as it rolls past the electromagnet and is rendered magnetized,

(c) the electromagnet being such distance above the rail and the pole face being of such configuration that the portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized 'by the relative movement of the pole face away from the center of the wheel continuously overlaps a portion of-that portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face-toward the center of the wheel.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the pole face of the electromagnet is of rectangular configuration, the pole face of the electromagnet being disposed so that the longer sides of the rectangle are parallel to the rail.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein that portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face away from the center of the wheel overlaps at least one-half of that portion of the face of the wheel rendered magnetized by the relative movement of the pole face toward the center of the wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS G. HARRIS, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 2462 

